The Time She Needed a Hero
by Avonlea Sawyer
Summary: It's not that she's weak. It's not that she can't handle it. But everyone needs a little help sometimes. Annabeth is no different. She's having a rough time and she needs a little saving. It's up to Percy to do a bit of hero work; the easiest of his career, it seems. Set after House of Hades, a bit of AU as we have no idea if they're going to make it out alive.


If Annabeth had thought that climbing from Tartarus hand over hand, fending off every monster in all of the Underworld with little more than a penknife would be the most difficult thing to ever happen to her, she had been wrong. Senior year was harder. Especially since she had moved to a brand new school for this year. Her father had a friend who was a professor at Columbia and she had opened her home to Annabeth while she finished up her schooling so that she could stay near Olympus, the camp and Percy. Eleanor's house was little more than a crash pad for the girl, she spent most of her time at the Jackson apartment or in the library of Olympus. Between schoolwork and the rebuilding of the Golden City, she was hardpressed for time and sleep.

She forced herself to do her homework first, which would have been simple had she not been taking mostly AP classes and attempting to get straight A's to earn a scholarship to Columbia. Jason had pretty much guaranteed her a spot in New Rome's University at Camp Jupiter, but she was hoping to stay on the East Coast. It wasn't that Percy that would not come with her, she had no doubt that he would, but his place was at Camp Half-Blood and she would not put him in a situation that forced him to fly if he needed to work. Traditional air travel was still terrifying to him and a pegasus was not ideal for long distances.

Eleanor respected her need for privacy, especially after her father had explained that she was given a good deal of freedom, that he trusted her choices implicitly. Saving the world half a dozen times gave her the right to no curfew, she imagined. So the nights she fell asleep in the library or at the kitchen table at the Jackson's, Eleanor just let her be. More often than not, Percy would deliver her home late in the evening, sometimes asleep in his arms.

But it was not the studying that Annabeth found difficult. Studying came as second nature to her. It was the rest of it that was hard. She imagined that the first few weeks of school had been confusing for her classmates. She was muscular, toned, athletic. She had curly blonde hair and soft gray eyes. She was lean, lithe, attractive. Within the first week she had been approached by every girls' team in the school; volleyball, soccer, powder puff football, even cheerleading. She had declined them all. It soon became apparent that she was not what most considered a typical pretty girl. Her tumultuous curls were always restrained in a ponytail or a messy bun. She wore jeans every day; at least most of the time she tried to match her Converse to her t-shirt. Ok, sometimes.

She did not make friends easily, especially friends with girls. All of her friends at been made at the edge of a blade; high school girls were a monster she had never had to face. Not that it mattered. Percy took up all of her free time. When she wasn't studying or sleeping she was cuddled up against him. Whenever he was, she was with him. They had been through so much together, lost so much, lost each other enough times to warrant the constant attachment. Sally couldn't argue with them. They were born to be together; they all knew that.

The real problem, she acknowledged, was that she was ill-prepared for senior girls. She had never really dealt with real girls. The closest she had ever come where the children of Aphrodite, but they were merely caricatures of real girls. Many of them were pretentious, petty narcissists. Real girls were just mean. Maybe it was the fact that Annabeth didn't care, or maybe it was that she was naturally beautiful, strong and independent, but she became a target for a team of girls hellbent on owning the Spence School.

The leader of the pack was named Jasmina Harris, Mina for short. She was almost as tall as Annabeth with ebony hair and eyes the color of molten chocolate. Her legs went on for days, her whole frame willowy and elegant. When she moved she looked almost feline. She had a band of cronies with her, Aubrey, Kelsey and Kyla. Each of them was a carbon copy of Mina herself; though Annabeth suspected the only one with her natural hair color was Mina.

When Annabeth had first been introduced to Mina and her gang of gigglers she had spent most of class attempting to see through the mist. Anyone that awful had to be a monster, or so she thought. There was nothing supernatural about the girls. They were just mean.

It began with the giggles. Whenever they would walk past Annabeth, they would snicker behind their hands. Then it escalated to rumors. She was a ward of the state, spent time in juvie, kicked out of numerous schools, anti-social. She suspected the last one was mostly true. She spoke to Percy and her friends from camp. She spoke to Rachel. She did not bother to get close to anyone at Spence. But was the most recent one that riled her to the point that she found herself storming into the Jackson apartment, her skin flushed red in anger, her gray eyes flashing silver.

Percy was seated at the kitchen table, his biology book open before him. He was taking notes when she stomped through the door and his head shot up to stare at her. "Ugh!" she exclaimed, slamming the door. "Why can't I just fight the Minotaur for my diploma?"

The corners of his mouth turned up a fraction at her frustration. "Did you get an A minus, babe?" he asked, fighting his smirk.

"No!" she exclaimed, momentarily horrified. For a moment she just stood there, staring at him as though he had sudden spouted Hydra heads. She shook herself to clear the horror before adding, "No. It's these ridiculous girls at school. They're complete wastes!"

He frowned. She was opinionated, sure, but she was more often than not his voice of reason. She saw the good in most everyone. Even when Luke was blatantly evil, she still saw the good in him. There was a stab of pain just behind his heart as he thought about his last moments with Luke Castellan. Then it was gone as she stormed around the table and leaned down, with her palms pressed against the surface. "Ok," he said, laying down his pen to mark his page and closing the book. "What's happened?" Those green eyes burned into her as she sank down on the chair and ran her hands through her hair; they tangled in the curls and she had to fight her way free.

"They say the most awful things," she whispered. "I can face down Medusa. I can fight a kraken. I can _climb out of Tartarus itself_. But these girls. I don't know how to make it stop." Percy's heart constricted. He hated seeing her like this. "And it doesn't matter. Not really. Because I'm the architect of Olympus. I found the Mark of Athena for gods' sake. I don't need them to _like_ me. I just need them to leave me alone so that I can study in peace!"

She was shaking as he rose to his feet and came around the table to her. He kneeled down, turning her chair to face him. Her hands fell down from her face and dropped into her lap. Percy reached out and took them in his. "What's going on, Annabeth?" he demanded softly but firmly.

"I was ok with the stories of juvie, or being a ward of the state. I'm sure there are worse things that are true. I'm sure that if they could see me wield a sword they would have a few choice words."

His gaze hardened. "They're saying these things about you?" he questioned.

She ignored him, pushing herself on. "And you know what? This one isn't quite so bad, really. But now people giggle in the library while I'm studying. There are gross notes in my locker. Before people were afraid of me, and I was ok with that."

"Annabeth," he growled, getting frustrated with the way that she was avoiding his questions. "What are they saying?"

She sighed, rolling those gorgeous gray eyes to him. "They're telling people that I like girls." Percy's eyes widened and he attempted to hide a smile. She saw and attempted to glare at him, but she started to smile instead. "And you know that wouldn't bother me, considering. But for a school in New York City, it seems that these people are incredibly narrow-minded."

"Oh, Annabeth," he muttered, pulling her out of the chair and into his lap. She slipped into his arms easily where he sat on the floor of the kitchen. "It's no big deal, babe." She buried her face in his neck and inhaled his salty scent. "Like you said, you're the architect of Olympus. You found the Mark of Athena. And I don't care if you are a closeted lesbian. You don't seem to mind our time in bed, so I'm good with whatever."

She choked back laughter, brushing her lips against his throat. He groaned, trailing his hands over her back through the t-shirt. "Seriously, Annabeth. Don't let this get to you. You're better than them." She did not relent, focusing on the tender flesh at his clavicle. "I can't think when you do that, you know!" he exclaimed. Her lips moved from his clavicle up to his ear as she smirked against his skin. He let out as gasp as her teeth grazed his earlobe. "Annabeth," he added warningly.

"When are your mom and Paul gonna be home?" she whispered against him. His arms tightened at her waist, pulling her flush against him.

"Not till after seven. They had to go to Jersey for some supplies Paul needed for classes." It was all he could do to focus on speaking coherently.

"Good," she answered, tangling her hands in the shaggy hair at the back of his neck. "Let me show you how much I love our time in bed." It was all the invitation he needed. He swept to his feet, her legs locked around his waist, his hands on her rear as he held her aloft. He masterfully made his way down the hall to his room and bumped the door open without separating himself from a single inch of her. With a swift kick it closed again, sealing them in for the afternoon.

The next day was easier to handle. She had gotten out a good deal of her frustrations, several times actually. She managed to get in a few quality hours of study time in a quiet corner of the library and even found herself able to ignore some of the jibes that were coming at her from her blind spot throughout the day. She got back her chemistry and calculus tests; her studying had paid off, she got an A on both.

With the final bell, she pushed herself up from her desk and meandered through the hallways to her locker. She dropped off her AP History text and picked up her AP Lit book before slamming the locker shut and turning on her heel. Mina and her cronies stood between her and the exit. She sighed and rolled her eyes before moving in her direction.

Annabeth was a warrior, a daughter of Athena. As she strolled the distance between herself and Mina she saw a million and one battle strategies. Had she held a weapon of some kind she could have dispatched this girl with both eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back. She was one of the leaders of the demi-god army that saved the world. She had singlehandedly found the Mark of Athena. She could have taken Mina before the bitch could blink an eye. It was this inner monologue that kept her moving forward toward the door. She sidestepped the quartet, much to Mina's annoyance. She kept moving, focused on the sunlight streaming from the glass doors at the front of Spence.

She felt rather than heard the atmosphere shift as Mina and the girls turned on their heels. Then the click-clack of their perfectly sized designer heels began to follow her, their voices rising up in a chorus taunting her faded jeans and t-shirts. Annabeth pushed herself through the doors, swinging them open. They were closer than she thought because the doors never sealed, she heard their constant stream of chatter in her ears. She hit the steps and stopped abruptly.

Across the street from Spence, leaned against a mailbox, was the tall, lean, dark haired figure of her wonderful boyfriend. His arms were crossed over his chest, one ankle locked over the other. He wore his favorite faded jeans but his normal t-shirt had been replaced. In its place he wore a button down shirt the color of the sea on a sunny day. It was apparent that he had attempted to tame his wild hair and though he managed to get it brushed to one side it still fell roguishly in his startling green eyes. She saw the glimmer in those eyes all the way across the street.

He pushed himself from the mailbox and prowled across the street, moving like a lion. She found herself fastened to the spot as Mina and her followers stopped to appreciate the man coming toward them. Annabeth took the moment of silence to appreciate the form of the man before her. His shoulders were broad, his biceps full from swinging Riptide around the practice ring. His waist was tapered from all the running he did. He seemed to shine in the street, the godliness rolling off of him. He drew the eye of every girl outside Spence. She was convinced there were even some girls in the windows watching him.

As he stepped onto the sidewalk only feet from the steps she stood on she felt the draw that always happened between them. She took a step down, her lips turning up at the corners. "Hey," he whispered, hands tucked in his pocket.

"Hey," she answered, taking the final step to street level. "What are you doing here?"

He smirked, reaching out to grip her hand. She grinned back as he pulled her a step closer, his free hand snaking around her waist. "What I always do." She quirked an eyebrow at him in askance. "Saving you, of course."

"Saving me?" she snorted, rolling her eyes as he pulled her even closer. "Pretty sure I'm the savior here."

He shook his head, enjoying the feeling of her pressed against him. "Remember, you're the architect. I'm the hero."

"You're my hero, Seaweed Brain," she whispered, eliciting a snort from him with her corniness. But his mission was apparent, and it was a pleasure to complete it. For the first time in his life, he was happily dashing into the fray. He gripped her tightly, pressing her down into a dip that would make Fred Astaire stand up and applaud. Her blonde hair tumbled from its loose bun, spilling out to fan around her as his hand found the back of her head. With that irresistible smirk in place, he bent his head and pressed his lips to her as her arms crawled around his shoulders and pulled her more tightly against him.

Without warning, he swept her up, maintaining his balance with the grace of a dancer, and scooped her up with the steel band of his arm wrapped securely behind her knees. She snickered against his lips before he deepened the kiss, burning away any thoughts in her head about the audience they were attracting. All that mattered in that moment was his mouth, his tongue, his arms. When they finally broke away it was her that instigated it. She was gasping for air, her hands so wrapped up in his hair that she had to forcibly untangle herself. He shifted to let her legs slide down the length of him to the ground. She steadied herself on him, her hands resting on his shoulders.

"Who the hell is this?" Mina demanded from somewhere above her.

Annabeth startled, having forgotten that the girls were even there. She turned to take in their audience. Dozens of girls stood around them, gaping with open mouths. "Oh," she responded offhandedly. "This is my boyfriend, Percy." She gestured. "He goes to Goode."

Percy waved with one hand, a quick, sharp wave, before turning his attention back to her. "So, you know those blueprints you left at my place?" he asked. She nodded, her gaze becoming quizzical. She left them at his house all the time. It was easier than carting them back and forth to Eleanor's. "My dad called. He wants to know if you're ready for the clients to see some of them." Now he was just lying, she had just had a meeting with the gods to discuss the placement of temples the other day.

"Uh, yeah," she offered, going with it to ride it out. "I think they're about done."

"Great. Your dad called too," he continued, green eyes twinkling at her. She tilted her head, wondering where this was going. "We got to talking about how proud we are of you. He wants you to call him when you get a chance. Something about your pilot's license arriving." Her eyes took on a shine, finally catching his game. The kiss must have scrambled her brain cells.

"Thanks, Seaweed Brain," she whispered, leaning in to press her forehead to his. His hands fell to her hips and he pulled the lower half of her body against him. "I owe you one."

He brushed a feather light kiss against her lips and whispered in return, "I'm sure I can think of something you can do to repay me."

"Anything," she answered, her gray eyes glinting with mischief. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be." He pulled away and took her hand in his before turning back to the girls that still gaped. "Oh," he called over to Mina and her entourage. "And just so you know, I'm pretty sure she could rip your head off your shoulders if given the chance. She's gorgeous but deadly. Keep that in mind." Mina blanched under her spray tan and two of the carbon copies stepped backward, shock showing on their faces. Annabeth smirked over her shoulder at Mina before tugging Percy down the sidewalk in the direction of the subway.


End file.
